No One Knows, and No One Cares
by Meggie cronwall
Summary: Everybody thinks I'm so stupid. If only they knew that it was only a cover up for the truth. If only they cared enough to learn the truth.


No one knows the real me.

To everyone I'm a stupid, spoiled rotten rich girl who couldn't care less about other people's feelings.

That isn't true.

They also believe that I'm oblivious, that I don't know what they say about me behind my back, that I don't know that I'm failing and that I can't get everything I want.

But I do know that.

I know it hurts when I hear those words spoken; the words portraying the cover up, the lie that I was just a stupid girl, with no morals and without a care in the world. The invention that took me years to create to hide the truth was all they ever saw. Sometimes though, I allow that carefully planned invention to fail, to unveil when I say something intelligent or meaningful gaining the stunned looks and curious questions from my friends. But then I put the mask back on, I'm my invention again and then nobody cares and everybody forgets that _she_ of all people said something helpful, something smart.

It's ironic though; that the one who they think is so stupid is fooling them all, making them believe that she's just another spoiled brat. If only they knew what I've been through.

I'm in my room now, holding an old picture frame in my hand, allowing some secret tears to fall onto the glass as I breathe a name, a whisper from the past. "Mom," the moment the word leaves my lips I chock back a sob, instantly cradling the picture closer to my chest imagining that they were _her_ arms, warm and comforting instead of the deadly cold as they had been when I'd gone to get her in the morning all those years ago. I remember running in, a large smile plastered on my five year-old face as I jumped onto the bed saying 'Come on mommy! It's time to wake up.' I recall being confused when she didn't answer, or even stir; 'Mom?' I had asked again, feeling oddly cold as I went to peel the sheet off her only to find her skin pale and her expression strangely peaceful, like she was in a better place.

I remember screaming, yelling for daddy and begging for him to wake mommy up. But then the people with the white clothes came in, they put mommy on a stretcher and covered her up before taking her away.

I had yelled again asking daddy where they were taking mommy.

He had picked me up, looking straight at me with those tearful eyes as he said the words that would change my life forever. "Mommy-mommy is going to a good place," He had stuttered, I could tell that he was trying hard not to break down as I asked when she would be coming back.

"Mommy isn't coming back," Daddy had whispered, clutching me to his chest as I began to scream once more, tears freely falling down my cheeks as he continued to whisper "I know, I'm sorry, I know."

And that was day my life went spiraling down.

We sold our old house and moved into the Tipton where there would be plenty of people to keep an eye on me when Daddy went on his business trips. Daddy was always busy now, and he had built walls around his heart so that he now seemed almost heartless. But there are those moments, those secret moments when he would not be working and he would take out a box of Mommy's old things, where he would break down those barriers around his heart and cry.

It's funny how I had resorted to doing the same.

Nobody knew this of course; everybody thought my mother was still alive, that she was the one who I saw at the Tipton on my sixteenth birthday. But it wasn't her; it had been my first stepmother, one of the two who I actually liked that had been there for me. She had at least understood.

I hear the click of the lock. Hastily stuffing the picture frame back under my bed I wipe my eyes, praying that there is no trace of the tears as the door opens revealing Baily. "London, are you coming or not?"

Putting on a fake smile I nodded eagerly "Yeah, sure."

She looked at me strangely before asking "Are you alright?"

I laughed "Never better! Well, maybe I could have been a little better, if I didn't have to see those hideous things you call clothes."

She rolled her eyes in annoyance before leaving; tossing my hair back I went to follow her, but just before I closed the door I murmured softly "I love you, Mom." With that I closed the door firmly behind me.

Perhaps one day I'll be able to stop this charade, perhaps one day my friends will learn the truth. But as I see them smiling and laughing without a care in the world, I know that today would not be that day. Because although they think they are so smart, they have failed to see the truth behind the mask. Because even though they're so good at science and math; they fail to see the other things, the bad things in life.

So once again my invention is put to work, the engines are rusted and tired but somehow I continue on. No one knows the real me, no one knows the truth and as I face my friends I try to fight back tears as I wondered if anyone would ever care to learn at all.

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_So, that's it hoped you liked it. Feel free to review if you'd like to. _


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